US President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1) has narrowly passed after US Vice President JD Vance broke a 50-50 deadlock in the US Senate.
A ban on pharma’s TV ads may finally be on the way.
Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Angus King, I-Maine, introduced the End Prescription Drug Ads Now Act last week that would end pharma’s ability to advertise directly to consumers.
If enacted, the bill would fulfill a goal of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who targeted TV advertisements when he was running for president and maintained that position after joining the Trump administration.
Two Democratic lawmakers have renewed accusations that large pharma companies have evaded paying U.S. taxes through a legislative loophole that drugmakers are allegedly lobbying to retain.
Key pharma reforms are up in the air as Republicans battle over their mammoth legislation that includes significant healthcare spending cuts.
What’s noteworthy is that in this Congress the Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to advance their drug patent reform plans, re-introduced as two separate bills.
According to critics, PBMs drive up drug costs through an opaque rebate system, and their joint ownership structure with pharmacies and health insurers creates an unfair and anticompetitive business model. Just three companies — CVS’s Caremark, Cigna’s Express Scripts and UnitedHealthcare’s OptumRx — control the vast majority of the PBM market. And their concentrated and complex operations have been catching heat amid calls for drug pricing reform.
Lawmakers on Tuesday released the full text of a bipartisan agreement to fund the government through March.